M190 Moving ancient stones at Govan Parish Church

Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh moved the carved early medieval Govan Stones from around the churchyard into an enclosure built to their design. John Honeyman had a long-standing interest in the graveyard monuments at Govan Parish Church. In 1889, his essay, 'The Sarcophagus in Govan Churchyard', was published in Glasgow Regality Club's first volume of papers, and in 1893 he submitted a report to the Govan Heritors urging the construction of a top-lit building to protect the monuments. In February 1899, John Keppie read a paper by Honeyman to Glasgow Archaeological Society reiterating the need to preserve the monuments. However, the funds required to erect the building suggested by Honeyman six years earlier had still not been raised. 1 The stones were moved inside the church in 1926. 2

Authorship: This is one of over 270 jobs carried out in the office of John Honeyman & Keppie (Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh from 1901) during Mackintosh's time there. Mackintosh undoubtedly worked on many of these, but there is no specific evidence for his involvement in this case.